Alexander Bustamante

William Alexander Bustamante (24 February 1884-6 August 1977) was Chief Minister of Jamaica from 3 May 1953 to 2 February 1955, preceding Norman Manley, and Prime Minister from 29 April 1962 to 23 February 1967, preceding Donald Sangster. He was the founder of the conservative Jamaica Labor Party and the father of Jamaica's independence.

Biography
Alexander Clarke was born in Blenheim, Jamaica on 24 February 1884 to an Irish Catholic planter father and a mixed-race woman. He took on the surname "Bustamante" in honor of a Spanish sea captain who had befriended him in his youth. He studied in the United States and lived in Cuba and Panama before returning to Jamaica in 1934 to become a trade union organizer. In 1938, he founded the right-wing Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, when he was also successfully defended by Norman Manley from charges of sedition. He organized a general strike in 1939, and in 1943 founded the conservative Jamaica Labor Party. He became Chief Minister of Jamaica in 1944, serving until 1955. He was originally an opponent of greater autonomy (arguing that self government meant "slavery"), but he changed course and ignited Jamaica's patriotism to campaign for independence from the Federation of the West Indies. He became the first Prime Minister upon independence, but he retired in 1967 because of ill health. Bustamante died ten years later at the age of 93.